In reality, there is really a so-called nine-story demon tower, also known as the nine-story demon building, which is the common name of the local people for the "Wei Xue No.1 Tomb".
There is an unlucky legend among local Tibetans about this ancient tomb, which is called "a tall building with monsters". This tomb belongs to Tuguhun Mausoleum in the early Tang Dynasty, and it is also the first tomb of Tuguhun discovered in China. Because Tuguhun was wiped out by Tubo in the 7th century, local people were afraid of being wiped out by their ancestors, so they might call it a "monster". There are many small ancient tombs around the No.1 tomb of Wei Xue, with a number of more than 200. The international academic circles call this ancient tomb group "Hot Water Tomb Group".
According to the examination, the owners of these ancient tombs are basically members of the Tuyuhun royal family, which shows that they once dominated one side. Tuguhun was an active trading nation on Qinghai Road in the 5th century A.D., ruling the Qinghai Road area from Sichuan Province in the east to Taklimakan Desert in the west, and mastering all the spheres of influence of East-West trade.
There are many small tombs and more than 200 caves around Wei Xue's No.1 tomb, all of which were stolen. International academic circles call this ancient tomb group "hot water ancient tomb". Wei Xue No.1 Tomb faces south, with a height of 33 meters, a length of 55 meters from east to west and a width of 37 meters from north to south. From the front, it looks like a "gold", so it is called the "Oriental Pyramid".
The two mountains behind the tomb stretch from east to west, like two dragons, and the tomb is like a treasure bead, forming a "double dragon playing with pearls" trend. There are three layers of mud and stone rammed stone walls under the tomb. When the Tuguhun people built their tombs, influenced by the shape of the yellow intestines of the royal tombs in the Han Dynasty, they evolved into a layer of cypress with a height of 40-50 cm, and then they were stacked layer by layer, just like Gai Lou. The growth of cypress is extremely slow. A cypress with a thick bowl is 200 years old, and a cypress in one's arms must grow for at least 1000 years.
The thickest diameter of cypress in Tuguhun tomb is 60 cm, and the thinnest is 15 cm. Small tombs generally use twenty or thirty cypress trees, and larger ones use hundreds. From top to bottom, every 1 m or so, there is a layer of neatly arranged wood across the mound, while there are as many as 9 layers of cedar with the same thickness. Because of this, local farmers and herdsmen call it the "nine-story demon building".
According to estimates, it takes 10,000 people to build such a tomb, which takes more than one year. At present, archaeologists have only excavated the first and second floors of the tomb, and unearthed a large number of funerary objects and more than 700 animal remains such as horses, cows and sheep. Among many funerary objects, there are ancient leather boots, ancient Tibetan wood chips, ancient Mongolian wooden slips, painted wood chips and gold ornaments, wooden plates, wooden birds and animals, grains and a lot of silk. Archaeologists also found five horse burial ditches and 13 annular burial pits for cattle, dogs and other animals in front of the tomb, and unearthed the complete skeletons of 87 horses and a large number of other animal bones. In addition, the architectural form and style of this tomb is unique among archaeological discoveries in China. Silk unearthed in tombs has good texture, clear patterns and bright colors, which is a rare and precious historical relic, while grain-like funerary objects can only be found in the tombs of dignitaries, which has high research and ornamental value.